Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday, October 22, that the sport’s newly announced Grand Prix in Rwanda could extend his racing career, telling reporters at the United States Grand Prix press conference in Austin, Texas, that a race in Africa has long been his dream. “I’m now forced to stay a lot longer because we have a race in Africa, and that’s been my dream, to be able to race in Africa,” the 41-year-old Ferrari driver said.
Hamilton’s Africa dream
Hamilton has spoken for years about his desire to see Formula One return to the African continent. The last African Grand Prix was held at Kyalami in South Africa in 1993, when Hamilton was just eight years old. Since then, the continent has been absent from the Formula One calendar, even as the series has expanded to races across the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East.
The British driver, who turns 42 in January, is under contract with Ferrari through 2027. He is already one of the oldest active drivers on the grid; only Fernando Alonso, at 45, is older. Hamilton’s comments on Thursday suggest that the prospect of a homecoming of sorts — racing on the continent where his ambitions to become an F1 driver first took shape — could motivate him to keep going beyond his current deal.
Hamilton has used his platform for years to push for a race in Africa, arguing that the sport’s global calendar was incomplete without the continent. Thursday’s remarks were the clearest signal yet that the Rwanda deal, announced only last week, has given him a personal sporting reason to extend a career already in its 20th season at the top level of motorsport.
The Rwanda deal
Formula One announced last week that it had signed a 10-year agreement for a Rwanda Grand Prix. The race will be held in Bugesera, about 40 kilometres south of the capital, Kigali, near Kigali International Airport. A new purpose-built circuit will be constructed for the event, which means the race is expected to join the calendar in the early 2030s. The race will be sponsored by Visit Rwanda, the country’s tourism promotion body.
The announcement marked a significant expansion of Formula One’s global footprint and answered years of campaigning by Hamilton and others in the sport for a return to Africa. For the Rwandan government, the deal represents another major sporting event to add to a growing portfolio of international partnerships.
Because a new purpose-built circuit must be created at the Bugesera site, the race will not debut until the early 2030s. That timeline places the first edition squarely within the window Hamilton hinted at on Thursday: a driver under contract through 2027 who chooses to race on would be in his mid-forties by the time the lights go out in Rwanda, making him one of the oldest grand prix drivers in the sport’s history.
The criticism
The deal has drawn criticism. Amnesty UK has criticised the Rwanda Grand Prix agreement as sportswashing, arguing that hosting high-profile sporting events helps the country deflect attention from its human rights record. Rwanda has also been accused of supporting the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an accusation the government in Kigali denies, and the country’s human rights record has been widely criticised by campaigners.
Hamilton acknowledged those concerns while defending the race. “I think for me, it’s a place that deserves to have a grand prix,” he said. “It’s about more than just one country. It’s about the continent itself.” His remarks reflected his long-held view that Africa should have a permanent place on the Formula One calendar, regardless of which country hosts the event.
What happens next
The Rwanda circuit has yet to be built, and the race will not appear on the calendar until the early 2030s, leaving the sport years to work through the logistics — and the debate — surrounding the event. In the meantime, attention turns to this weekend’s action in Austin, where Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, 20, could clinch the championship.
Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton at Mercedes last season and now leads the title race, sat alongside the Ferrari veteran at Thursday’s press conference. Asked about Hamilton’s plans to race into his forties, the young Italian told him: “You got to do at least the first one.” If Hamilton stays true to his word, the first Rwanda Grand Prix could feature one of the sport’s greatest ever drivers on the starting grid.
